Five Times Luke and Leia Sensed Their Family
by Apollaskywalker
Summary: Their presence lingers in the Force and the twins can sense it. Five times Luke and Leia sensed their family.
1. Luke

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars or The Clone Wars. The dialouge in section five is from Star Wars The Clone Wars Season 1, Episode 22: Hostage Crisis.

Author's Note: The idea came after I noticed that Padme and Anakin sit on the same side of the homestead dining table in AOTC as Luke does in ANH.

1.

When Luke was old enough to sit in a big boy chair and not a highchair, he moved his spot at the table from next to Beru to across from her. At first she thought nothing of it. Then one day he said to her, "Mama and papa was here."

"Were," Beru corrected automatically as set the table for dinner. Then she realized what he had said and looked at him quizzically. "What? Where?"

Luke patted his chair. "Here."

The most frightening thing to Beru was that he was right. The only time she and Owen had ever met Luke's parents, the two had sat on that side the table. The side Luke had picked.

2.

Luke liked to work in the garage. Sometimes he took his homework there and fill out worksheets on the fall of the Republic and math. Sometimes Owen was there, sometimes not. Beru went out one day to ask Luke to take a look at one of the droids and asked him why he didn't do his homework in his room or at the table.

"I like it here," Luke answered simply. "It feels like mom and dad."

Beru didn't tell Owen about this.

3.

Luke wandered off a few times when he was out with Owen checking the vaparators. Owen found him each time before he needed to tell Beru, thankfully.

Each time Owen found the little boy, he held a fist full of mushrooms. They grew on the vaparators and could be a bit of a nuisance if they grew in the wrong spot. More than once, Owen had lost some moisture because a tiny growing mushroom allowed the hot desert air to evaporate the water. But Owen had never collected mushrooms since his stepmother was kidnapped and died at the hands of the Sand People.

The first time he did it, Owen spanked Luke, an instant need to make sure that Luke _never ever_ did that again. It was dangerous! "You leave those alone, you hear me?" Owen told his nephew.

Luke cried. "But grandma picked them!"

Owen felt cold. "How – how did you know that?" They had removed the tombstone for Shmi long ago, they'd not spoken of her. Speaking of her brought up Anakin, brought up Padmé…and Obi-Wan Kenobi.

"I see her. She picks them and looks up at the sky and says she misses papa."

Owen called Kenobi that night to ask how to keep Luke from seeing or sensing things.

4.

Once upon a time they went to Mos Espa. It was a big trip and Luke had been thrilled at the opportunity.

They needed a part for a droid, but no one closer to Anchorhead or Mos Eisley had the specific part. His aunt had suggested they make a little holiday of it and his uncle had agreed. There wasn't much in terms of activities, but it was still a trip. No city on Tatooine had museums or zooparks like Luke read about on other worlds, but Mos Espa had a _spaceport_.

While his uncle shopped for the part, Luke and Beru went to the spaceport to look at the ships. The pilots and repair crews answered Luke's questions with the patience only those who'd baked in the Tatooine suns could ever have. It was the first time Luke got to see ships up close.

Beru had her own questions but she always waited until Luke had asked all of his before asking any. When it was time to meet Owen for dinner, she took Luke's hand and half led, half pulled the boy from the docking bays. They walked down one of the streets and Luke stopped for a moment.

He watched a beautiful young girl with long brown hair stop and stand outside a rundown, closed shop. She seemed to be speaking to someone, but there was no one around her who appeared to notice her. She looked unhappy and her voice sounded as clear as an alarm in Luke's head, _"Well _I_ don't approve."_ The girl sat down and vanished.

Luke stared at the spot, feeling the same feeling of excitement and comfort as when he had sensed his mother's presence in the homestead. He was certain that had been his mother. His aunt had never told him where his mother had come from, but now he had an idea: she had lived in Mos Espa!

"Luke?" Beru asked, noticing he'd stopped walking.

Luke blinked and shook his head. By now he was old enough to know not to mention ghosts or seeing his parents. "Just a mirage, Aunt Beru," he squeezed her hand and gave her a smile.

She smiled back. "Let's get you something to drink."

5.

"What is it?"

"Your father's lightsaber," Ben explained. He continued on and Luke pressed the power button. The saber emitted a beam of blue light.

_This weapon is my life._

Luke pretended he didn't hear that as he swung the humming blade around, content to just look at it and know for once that he held something his father had. He wondered if Ben would be ok with Luke seeing ghosts and sensing remnants of his parents' presence around him. He decided not to tell him, in case Ben didn't like it.

_When I finished constructing my lightsaber, Obi-Wan said to me, 'Anakin, this weapon is your life. This weapon is my life._

_No, Anakin. I can't. A Jedi lightsaber is – wow, it's heavier than I thought._

_It's yours. Believe me now?_

His parents had held this lightsaber. Ben had given it to him as his father's lightsaber, but Luke knew that it had belonged to both his parents. And now it was his.


	2. Leia

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars.

1.

Leia's aide ran up to Bail in tears one afternoon and choked out, "I can't find Leia."

Times like these made Bail regret adopting Leia. He had known both her parents: her father was reckless, impulsive, danger prone and her mother could often be the same, if not more so since Padmé didn't have Jedi skills or training. But he had cared for Padmé and held Anakin in high regard, so when Padmé's children needed care, Bail offered to be there as best he could.

But that didn't mean he didn't wish sometimes that he could tamper with her DNA and make her less impulsive.

Security was alerted and the Senate building placed on lockdown while the Imperial guards combed the place for the five-year-old. No one else thought Leia had done it on purpose. She was five, it was her first visit to the Imperial Senate. Emperor Palpatine himself told Bail she had probably just made a wrong turn and gotten lost. Bail had nodded, not wanting to contradict the Emperor, not in public and not to his face anyway. But Bail felt that Leia had gone after something.

So he followed his instinct and went to the office of the senator of Naboo. The senator anxiously let Bail inside but insisted that there was no way a small child could have entered the room without having been noticed. Bail found Leia at a window seat, overlooking the Imperial city. "Daddy!" she called out when he came in.

Behind Bail, the senator sputtered out surprised and confused noises. Bail walked over to Leia and took her hand before removing his comlink to tell security she had been found.

Bail marched Leia out of the office and down to the security office. Palpatine met them, the Naboo senator had told him where little Leia Organa had been found. "Curious, tell me, little one, why were you in there?" he asked.

Leia ducked behind Bail's leg and clutched her father's cloak. "Must have gotten lost and thought they were my offices. Then she probably just liked the view," Bail covered for his daughter's silence. He filled out the security forms and took care of protocol before he took his daughter back to their Coruscant apartment.

"Leia," Bail asked her lightly when they were alone. "Why _did_ you go there?"

Leia looked at her father with all the innocence of her five years and then some. _She would either make a great politician or a lawyer or a sabaac player_, Bail thought. "I saw a lady and she felt familiar…so I followed her."

"Who was this lady?"

"I dunno her name," Leia admitted. "She was my dream lady."

Oh. Bail realized. She had seen Padmé.

2.

In between the giggling and the running around, Leia told Winter a secret only her parents knew: the dream people.

She had never seen them before, not in person, though she suspected one of them was her mother. (She suspected this because she knew she was adopted and had known for a while. And whenever she talked about the dream woman her mom looked tense and always told Leia that she loved her so very much.)

The woman was the clearest image in her dreams, the one she could remember the most vividly while awake. Beautiful with long brown hair like Leia's. She smelled of flowers and water. But she didn't smile all the time, only rarely – and those times hadn't been when Leia had dreamt on Alderaan.

The other two were both boys. One was a grown up boy, around her dad's age. But he had dark blond hair that was longer than her dad's hair and a scar by his eye. He walked with confidence, but not confidence like the princes of Alderaan or the senators she'd met. He walked with the confidence of a boy so sure that nothing could harm him, he didn't even look around like the security guards did. And he smiled a lot. But she always felt sad when he showed up in her dreams - or she felt nervous. Like underneath all that confidence was an avalanche about to come down the mountain.

The other boy was Leia's age. He had short, sandy blond hair and a shy smile. He was the most common dream person, they played together nearly every night in her dreams and sometimes she imagined he was there on long rides from Alderaan to Coruscant or some other planet.

Winter patted Leia on the back after Leia had explained them. "It must be lonely on Coruscant for you to make up imaginary friends."

After that, Leia didn't spoken to Winter for several days. But they forgave each other. They were friends, after all.

3.

At the introduction of the Empire's new cruisers, Leia and her mother took a tour of an old Republic cruiser that had been in use during the Clone Wars. Stormtroopers occupied stations once manned by clones as they demonstrated how the cruiser functioned.

The Jedi were glossed over with discomfort that only Leia seemed to notice. The clones were also given a bit of dismissal. It was as if the war that had ushered in the Empire had been fought by villains on all sides, even though the Emperor had once been the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic. The attitude confused Leia more than anything. How could the once Chancellor rule over an Empire that dismissed the soldiers who had fought to keep the Republic?

They approached the bridge and Leia saw the dream man out of the corner of her eye. She turned her head in his direction and he wandered over to the front window of the bridge. Eyes on the dream man, Leia raised her hand. The tour guide paused. "Yes, your highness?"

"Who was the Jedi general who commanded this vessel?"

The guide shifted her weight from one foot to the other and bit her lip. "You know, I don't know."

Breha touched Leia's shoulder. "Leia, we're here to learn about how the ship functioned, not its personnel. You can look that up later."

In their apartment later, Breha held Leia's hand. "The Empire doesn't like the Jedi, Leia. It's best not to ask them those kinds of questions in public."

"But, they fought for the old Republic – for democracy and freedom," Leia straightened up, "just like the clones did. We should honor them, their sacrifice –"

"Leia, they betrayed the Republic –"

"So the Emperor says," Leia muttered darkly.

Breha squeezed Leia's hand tightly nervously. "Leia Amidala Organa," she whispered forcefully. "Be careful who you say that to. Some people don't appreciate the truth and you could be hurt for it."

Leia did not understand that, not yet.

The next morning, Leia's mother gave her the name of the Jedi General: Anakin Skywalker. She also gave her the number and name of the clone captain: CT-7567 "Rex."

4.

Leia's favorites of the droids that serviced the _Tantive_ _IV_ were R2-D2 and C-3PO. They felt like family, they always had. Artoo was brave and funny, but also very dependable. Threepio was proper and devoted to his tasks, but he was easily flustered and annoyed by his counterpart.

The first time they met, Artoo had wheeled over to her and chirped excitedly. "Mistress Leia," Threepio translated Artoo's beeps and whistles. "Artoo and I are delighted to meet you. We have heard so much about you."

Leia once asked Captain Antilles where he'd gotten them. The Captain told her that her father had given the droids to be part of the _Tantive IV_'s staff. He'd received them around the time Leia had been born.

Leia knew her mother had died shortly after her birth. She wondered if they felt like family because they had belonged to her mother. But she never asked because that sort of questions might make her parents worry. They were already concerned about the dream people, even though Leia had trained herself to ignore them and didn't see them as often as she used to.

5.

Above Tatooine, an Imperial Star Destroyer about to overtake her ship, Leia felt strangely at peace. There was something familiar about Tatooine, a planet she had never seen or visited. And as she placed the memory disk inside Artoo and recorded her message, she felt confident that this droid who felt so much like family would find her father's old Jedi friend.

The familiarity of Tatooine or maybe someone who lived there gave Leia hope that all was not lost, she wouldn't spend the rest of her life in Imperial prison, and she would see her family again.


End file.
